World’s First Wireless Phone Linked to Murder & Catastrophe

How did Guglielmo Marconi, a young entrepreneur with limited scientific education, prevail against other great scientists and companies in a race to invent wireless communications?

How did Guglielmo Marconi, a young entrepreneur with limited scientific education, prevail against other scientists and companies in a race to invent wireless communications, earn a fortune, and be tapped for the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics? (Nikola Tesla's patents have superseded Marconi's, giving Tesla credit for the advent of the radio, but that's a story for another time.)

Combine serendipity from a sensational murder chase and the world's most famous shipwreck with Marconi's tenacious grit and never-ending hard work, and we get the advent of the world's first wireless phone.

Marconi struggled the better part of a decade (1900-1910) to prove the commercial viability of wireless telegraphy using the recently discovered and spooky Hertzian waves (better known now as electromagnetic or radio waves). In the early 1900s, after successfully demonstrating transmissions over several distances (tens of miles to a few hundred miles), Marconi announced he would build a transatlantic system able to transmit signals wirelessly from one continent to the other (more than 2,000 miles).

The public and business investors scoffed at such an idea. First, telegraphs were the medium of choice. The Transatlantic Cable, already in place, worked brilliantly, so what was the point? There was no need, really. And contracts with the telegraph companies prohibited competition, so even if this were successful, it would not be a viable business.

Undeterred, Marconi sank his entire fortune and reputation into the dream. After nearly a decade of hard work and countless failures (many of his own doing), his fortune was nearly gone, and Marconi had little to show for all his hard work other than a few systems installed on passenger cruise liners running back and forth from the UK to Canada and the US. The Marconi Wireless Telegraphy systems enabled the affluent first-class passengers to send and receive news from back home during their lengthy voyage across the Atlantic -- a novelty at best.

But two spectacular and horrific events would change all that. The first was a telegram sent in late July 1910 across the wireless Marconi system by Chief Inspector Walter Dew from Scotland Yard. Dew, already famous for his investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders, was leading a manhunt for Dr. Hawley Crippen, who was suspected to be fleeing from the UK to North America with his girlfriend. Crippen was wanted for questioning in regards to his wife, Cora, whose beheaded and disemboweled remains had been found buried under the doctor's house. The telegram describing Crippen and his girlfriend was received by Captain Kendall aboard the SS Montrose, one of the few Canadian Pacific liners fitted with the Marconi wireless radio.

Kendall, recognizing two passengers that fit the description, radioed back: "Strong suspicions that Crippen -- London cellar murderer and accomplice are among Saloon passengers... Accomplice dressed as boy. Voice manner and build undoubtedly a girl."

Inspector Dew quickly departed London in pursuit aboard the White Star Liner Laurentic. The SS Montrose had a three-day head start. Dew needed to overtake the Montrose before it docked in Canada, or the fugitives would undoubtedly escape forever. For several days, wireless messages flew back and forth between the captains of both ships as the Laurentic, a much faster ship, caught up to the Montrose.

The wireless messages were intercepted daily and generated sensational newspaper headlines on both continents. Newspaper sales skyrocketed. Multiple nations sat on the edge of their seats watching (or rather reading) a 1910 version of the OJ Simpson car chase occurring in slow motion across the Atlantic. All this was made possible by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph.

The Laurentic was able to beat the Montrose to the Canadian dock. On July 29, 1910, Inspector Dew boarded the Montrose and arrested Crippen. The next day, the headline in the Nebraska State Journal read:

READY TO GRAB HIM
Scotland Yard Sleuth in wait for Dr. Crippen.
ARRIVES AHEAD OF DOCTOR

Crippen was returned to London, tried, found guilty, and hanged for the murder of his wife. He was the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless communications.

Literally overnight, Marconi's name became synonymous with wireless communications. Cruise ships lined up to install the latest and greatest system.

Just shy of two years later, on April 15, 1912, a high-pitched distress signal sang out hundreds of miles across the north Atlantic in a desperate plea for help. The Titanic had struck an iceberg. The distress signal was sent by a Marconi Wireless Telegraph system that had been upgraded for extended range just before her maiden voyage. The system was one of the most powerful in the world -- a range of up to 1,000 miles (1,609 km).

The rest is well known. The Carpathia altered course after receiving the distress signal. That ship, arriving approximately two hours after the Titanic sank, was able to save 710 passengers. Sadly, 1,500 passengers lost their lives in the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in modern history. Later investigations determined that the SS Californian had also received the distress signal but (for unknown reasons) failed to respond. Nevertheless, Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy proved invaluable that fateful night; 710 lives were saved by the world's first wireless telephone.

A quarter century later, on July 21, 1937, wireless operators around the world stopped transmitting for exactly two minutes during Guglielmo Marconi's funeral. The Great Hush occurred for the last time in world history. Over the course of one generation, Marconi's technology gave rise to the global village. Anybody could now talk to anybody using magical Hertz Waves. Scientists had denied it was even possible, but a tenacious, gritty individual with a bit of serendipity created a monopoly, captured the Nobel Physics prize, and made a fortune from invisible waves.

— Keith Schaub, founder of Wireless SOC Test Inc. and author of Production Testing of RF and SOC Devices for Wireless Communications, has more than 15 years of experience in RF/microwave system design and test engineering. He works at Advantest with w2bi on system-level testing and SOC businesses. He has a BSEE from Texas A&M and an MSEE from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Tesla also thought he had caused an earthquake through stiumlating the earth at its natural frequency. The man was way too ahead of his time but he had his demons, one of which was his lack of business sense. He invented so much and yet died broke and alone, truely sad that a man who did so much ended up "looking" like a failure. Don't forget the AC vs DC fight he had with his employer Edision.. AC transmission of power (as we all know now) was the best way to go and the only way for long distance. It says alot about Edision's pride that he could not accept being wrong.

I helped a skorea businesswomen by internet, she had lost her wallet and ID in China,

Her document was picked up by a bus driver, no one know these strange words, I copy her document and sent to a korea buddy of mine on the net, He translated the doc into English and return me and I dispatched it to bus company and find the woman who was very anxious.

You are correct. Here's link to top 10 catastrophic shipwrecks. You are referring to MV Dona Paz - listed as #1.
http://listverse.com/2008/07/26/top-10-catastrophic-shipwrecks/
Although the claim was that over 4,000 ppl were on board, the manifest showed around 1500. But in any case, Titanic is #5.
Thanks!

Very interesting story. Some are lucky others invest as much but their Titanic misses the berg ;-) ...

BTW: I'm not a native speaker, but at least to me the sentence about the largest loss of life in peace time sounds wrong as unfortunately there have been peacetime maritime disasters with many more victims. If I recall correctly there was an Asian Ferry which killed above 4000 people when sinking totally overloaded. So the statement would have to read ... largest loss of life AT THAT TIME, not "in modern history" (why the limitation to _modern_ history is necessary is another such question) ...

Apparently when questioned by the police Crippen recanted the story about his wife dying in the U.S. and explained that in fact she had run off with another man, and that he had made up the story to save face.

Great hearing from you. And I agree with your and most of the comments posted here about Tesla being robbed. I pointed out in the 1st paragraph that the patents were later awarded to Tesla, (too late and too little - Tesla never married and had no family, very sad really). At the time, Marconi was able to get it his way and was awarded the nobel prize in Physics. From what I read though, Tesla had invented several of the parts, the oscillator, etc., but Marconi put them together with some refinement (although Tesla did this too), but somehow Marconi was able to be more successful at it. From what I've read, it looks like Tesla was an OCD genius with a photographic memory, but struggled with running a business and company. The poor guy was robbed blind by Edison as well.

Kind of like what Steve Jobs did, right (The Blind Hacker Who Inspired Apple). Steve didn't invent the Blue Box :) , but he turned it into a product and then used it to leverage into the creation of Apple.

I guess I'll have to do some stories on Edison and Tesla...foreshadowing.

Sorry,I can not even give a tip of the hat to Marconi.He was working with the capital from "his" radio,and Tesla was starving.Bet Marconi never lost a minute's sleep while living high on another man's genius.

Marconi died rich and famous,Telsla died poor and broken.He did not even get the satisfaction of justice in the patent lawsuit.What good is a posthumus award if you have no family to collect?